In connection with research on biological purification methods, mainly on the treatment of glycol and phenol in waste water, a precipitating chemical with an associated precipitation process has been discovered, which exhibits, relative to treatment of glycol and phenol in waste water, substantially better purification results when used for the purification of hydrocarbon-bearing waste water and a number of dissolved and/or suspended organic and/or inorganic particles and substances in liquids, including particles and compounds formed, to a great degree, of mineral and/or rock particles, heavy metals, salts, phosphorous compounds, alcohols, lipids, aromatics and cellulose, said particles and compounds being present, to a great degree, in for example sewage and waste water from i.a. homes and industrial enterprises.
Known Technique
In prior art there exists a lot of equipment and/or techniques for treating dissolved and/or suspended organic and/or organic substances and particles in liquids, including substances and particles present in hydrocarbon-bearing waste water and for example in sewage and waste water from i.a. homes and industrial enterprises. Depending an the situation, place and extent of and need for purification of waste liquids, preferably hydrocarbon-bearing water, this may i.a. be carried out by means of ultrafiltration (membranes), an oil separator or a coalescer, hydrocyclones or centrifuges, by vacuum distillation or use of activated carbon. Purification of sewage-bearing water is often carried out by means of biological purification or by precipitation by chemicals. The most common precipitating chemicals are based on iron, aluminium and lime, cf. WO 8605826 and JP 56158194. These chemicals are often added to waste water in combination with a so-called flocculant, often consisting of a mixture of bentonite of the smectite type and a polymer, cf. SE 501216, U.S. Pat. No. 5,204,007 and JP 56158194. In some cases the precipitation is activated without the use of the above-mentioned type of precipitating chemical as the acidity of the waste water is adjusted to a specific pH-value or to within a certain pH range, cf. U.S. Pat. No. 5,204,007 and JP 56158194,
Drawbacks of Known Technique
Common features of most known purification processes and techniques are that they cannot work satisfactorily in all the different conditions often occurring in a normal situation of operation. Different conditions may for example occur when the pH-values (acidity) of a waste liquid vary a lot, or in that the waste liquid contains varying amounts of suspended substances and/or dissolved organic and/or inorganic compounds as i.a. soap compounds. In addition known technique provides efficient treatment of only a limited number of chemicals/elements in a single process, whereas the present invention can offer efficient treatment of a wider range of chemicals in a single process, which could be accomplished through application of known purification methods, but wherein several such known purification methods would possibly have to be combined in order to achieve the same purification effect as that offered by the present invention in a single process. In addition, several known purification processes and purification techniques are both time-consuming and costly as compared to the purification method in question.